Swords and Compasses
by emichii
Summary: The straw hat crew arrives at a new island but there's something very strange about it. When everybody else disappears, it's up to Nami and Zoro to save them, but will they ever get along?
1. Chapter 1

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ONE PIECE AND I KNOW IT!**

EMICHII: MY FIRST ONE PIECE FANFIC! IT IS CALLED…

Swords and Compasses 

**Chapter One- Why can't we just get along?**

"EVERYBODY WAKE UP!"

The sound of Luffy's voice woke up everyone else in the ship.

Nami groaned, "Luffy, shut up! I really need some sleep!"

"Well, you should have gone to bed earlier last night!" he retorted.

The hot-tempered swordsman yelled back at him, "WE WOULD'VE IF IT WASN'T FOR _SOMEONE_ IN A STRAW HAT KEEPING US UP ALL NIGHT!"

"Sheesh…" Luffy said but didn't give up, "But you still have all of this night to go to sleep so everybody WAKE UP!"

The Straw Hat crew slumped all over the breakfast table.

They were all dead tired except for Luffy. "Hey Nami! Where are we now?"

The navigator scowled at him and said, "Our next stop is here." She pointed to the map. "See there's an island around here called Microsoft Island. It's a big city that's famous for manufacturing computers."

"Great, my dear Nami," swooned Sanji. "Somewhere I can get fresh ingredients!"

"Yeah great…" Zoro rolled his eyes.

Nami gave him a look.

"How long till we get there?" Ussop asked.

"Oh, we'll probably get there in a few days," Nami shrugged.

"HURRAY! MICROSOFT ISLAND!" Luffy cheered.

That night it was Nami's turn on lookout. It was really cold and she shivered as she pulled the jacket around her tighter.

"If you're cold, you should go inside." Zoro said. The swordsman was standing there, hands on hips.

"What? I'm not cold!" Nami said.

Zoro reached out and swiped Nami on the arm. Nami shivered.

"Yep, you're definitely cold," he said. "Get your butt inside."

"I don't need to go inside!" Nami cried. "It's my duty so I have to stay out here!"

"Listen, I'll take your turn now get in there so that you don't get sick." Zoro couldn't help smirking at his own comment.

Nami could see where this argument was going. "I am not weak!" she said shrilly. "I can handle the cold."

"No you can't."

"Yes I can!"

"You can't."

"Oh? And you can?"

"Just go!"

"Why are you always so stubborn, Zoro?" she cried.

"Who me?"

"Yeah. You're mean."

Zoro towered over the girl. She was smirking at him now, arms folded. "Can't stand being insulted, can you?"

"You!" he shouted.

"Not used to losing the argument, are you? How do you usually settle arguments anyway?"

"With my swords," Zoro started to reach for his sword then stopped. "But I can't attack a _little_ girl." He added, smirking.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING A LITTLE GIRL?" Nami practically screamed.

It was Zoro's turn to gloat at her. "I don't see any other girls here…" he pressed. He could see the smoke coming form Nami's ears. Nami opened her mouth to say something but Zoro just got tired of arguing. He reached over and picked Nami up around the waist.

"HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING? Put me down!" she screamed.

"I'm taking you inside," he explained.

Nami tried to free herself but the swordsman's grasp was too strong for her. In the end she just pouted. Zoro took her to her room and dumped her on the ground. She was still angry.

"Seeya _Nami_," Zoro smirked and closed the door on her.

"Humph…" were all she said.

Nami and Zoro didn't bother arguing with Luffy's wake-up call the next morning but the tension between them was growing.

After breakfast, Zoro was "training." He was probably doing it just to annoy Nami because it just so happened that his room was next to hers. So he sat outside his room, with his shirt off, lifting weights. And when Nami came out of her room, the smoke came out from her ears again, causing Zoro to laugh out loud which caused him to drop his weight which fell down and hit him on the toe and made Nami laugh because the joke was on him.

Luffy came out to find Nami laughing so hard that she could hardly breathe and Zoro glaring at her and clutching his red toe.

Then he heard Ussop and Sanji arguing in the kitchen.

"Why can't we just all get along?" he sighed.

Later that day, Luffy, Sanji, Ussop and Nami were playing Truth or Dare outside on deck. Zoro was just standing outside his crowd looking over the ocean.

While Ussop, Luffy and Sanji were busy plotting something really drastic for Nami's dare, she stood up to start another argument with Zoro.

"I'm not interested," Zoro said as soon as she walked up to him.

"So you can read minds now, eh?" she smiled.

He looked away.

Then she sneezed. Once. Twice.

He smiled at his chance to annoy her again.

"I told you that you'd get sick if you got too cold," Zoro grinned with his canine teeth showing.

Nami started to pout again.

Sanji defended his girl. "Stop annoying Nami. You're HURTING her FEELINGS!"

Zoro and Nami rolled their eyes.

Then Nami saw the devilish stare in Luffy, Sanji and Ussop's eyes. "WHAT?" she shrieked.

"We've got your dare, Nami!" Luffy said.

Ussop stifled a laugh.

"What… is… it?" Nami chose her words carefully.

Sanji and Luffy started to laugh crazily. Zoro looked on, interested.

"You've got to take off your skirt! HAHAHAHA!" Luffy laughed evilly.

Zoro sighed, shook his head and looked away.

Nami was about to grab her stick and whack them all out of the ship but Sanji said with his curly eyebrow raised, "You're not chicken are you Nami?"

"PERVERTED FREAKS!" she screamed and whacked them anyway.

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR?" Luffy yelled.

"OWWWWW…" Sanji groaned.

Zoro gave Nami a brilliant smile which infuriated her even more, "You missed."

"THAT'S BECAUSE YOU DUCKED!"

Luffy, Ussop and Sanji watched Nami chase Zoro all over the ship. Then he turned around and grabbed Nami's wrist so that she couldn't hit him.

"LET GO OF ME!" she screamed shrilly.

Zoro yelled, "STOP SCREAMING FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!"

"WHO'S THE ONE SCREAMING NOW?"

Zoro flipped Nami over and so that she was draped over his shoulder. "PUT ME DOWN!"

Luffy watched on in interest.

Zoro laughed to himself, "If I put you down then you have to take off your skirt."

"YOU PERV-"

He slapped his hand over her mouth so that se couldn't talk. He watched the smoke come out of her ears again in amusement. She tried to slap him and he pulled her down and pinned her to the ground. "I… am not… a pervert… I'm a swordsman!" he hissed.

Nami was about to make another comment when she saw three other faces smirking at her behind Zoro's.

"This is so unfair…" she started to protest.

Zoro stood up and shrugged. "And I'm not interested," he said, "but if you're not chicken than prove it."

He turned and went away.

She stared after him. She was going to go and scream at him again when Sanji's voice said, "We're waiting…"

That's when she just gave up.

"I see London, I see France, I see Nami's underpants!" Luffy's voice interrupted Zoro's thoughts.

He was in his room, trying to train. But all he was thinking about was Nami. Nami smiling, Nami pouting, Nami with smoke coming from her ears, Nami flirting with him to annoy him…

"That girl has taken over my brain…" He murmured.

But then again, he kind of liked it.

"_CRAP! I'M A SWORDSMAN! I gave up on girls, okay!" _He yelled at himself.

"Ohhh…what's this about?" Nami's teasing voice said. She was leaning at the doorframe, smirking at him.

_ARGH! DON'T TELL ME I SAID THAT OUT LOUD!_

"What?" he asked, eyes narrowing.

"What did you say about giving up on girls?" she teased.

"HEY GUYS! I SEE LAND!" Luffy yelled.

Nami and Zoro ran out to deck to see.

"THERE IT IS! MICROSOFT ISLAND!" Luffy shouted.

"YEEAAAHHH!" Sanji and Ussop cheered.

Nami just thought to herself, _I can feel it. Something is wrong._

Zoro frowned at the island. _There seems to be a dark shadow around it. Something is really bad._

Luffy anchored the ship and they jumped off and headed in different directions.

"I'm gonna get something to eat!" declared Luffy.

"I'm going to look for pretty girls!" Sanji sang. Nami gave him a look and he added, "And I'm gonna look for fresh food as well…"

Ussop said he was going to look around.

Zoro looked around the city cautiously. "Something seems wrong," he said.

Nami stuck her tongue out at him. "Oh? Like what?"

Zoro gave her a hard stare.

She felt uneasy. "Okay, so I feel it too. I don't know what it is but something is seriously wrong with this island,"

"I'm going to get my swords sharpened and cleaned. They smell like blood," He said, and started to walk off.

Nami ran after him, "Hey wait up!"

He said, "What do you want?"

"I'm just gonna tag along and make you miserable," she smirked, "it's obvious you can't act normal around _girls…_"

"Huh…" he grunted.

But he knew it was true. It wasn't just girls, it was Nami. She made him feel uncomfortable.

"Hey, where is everyone?" he wondered.

The city seemed deserted.

Emichii: YAAYYY! My first One Piece fanfic! Hurray! AS you can tell, this is going to be Zoro/Nami centered. So read and review everybody!

**Chapter Two- **


	2. Chapter 2

Emichii: Here's the second chapter, peoples! Enjoy!

**Chapter Two- A cruel trick**

They walked into the city; there was no-one there.

They could see Luffy, Sanji and Ussop ahead of them, wondering the same thing. Luffy yelled out, "ANYBODY HERE?"

Just then, tons and tons of people crowded into the square. They were cheering and waving flags with Luffy's face on it. Luffy stood proudly, "The people here love me! That's cuz I'm the next king of the pirates!"

Nami rolled her eyes.

Zoro looked around nervously. He had been to a city before, and they had taken his swords because they were illegal. Ussop started to yell, "Hey I'm the captain of this crew! Right, Sanji?"

Sanji laughed. "As if,"

The crowd of people carried Luffy away, chanting, "King of the Pirates!"

Ussop and Sanji ran after them.

Nami and Zoro still thought something was wrong. Zoro spotted a kid tagging a long way behind the crowd. "Hey kid," he called out.

The kid gave him a wary look.

"Who's in charge at this place?" he asked.

The kid gave him another frightened look and ran away. Zoro sighed.

"You're too hard on them," Nami said stiffly, "this is how it's done,"

She went up to a man walking by. "Excuse me; do you happen to know who's in charge around here?"

The guy stared. After a long pause, he grinned and said, "No-one's in charge here. We're all free people who do whatever we want but we get along great!"

Nami smirked at Zoro. Zoro frowned, _that's weird. How could a whole city of people get along without someone in charge?"_

They wandered back to the crowd. They were all praising Luffy, Sanji and Ussop as if they were kings or something. Some of them stood in front of them in awe and respect.

"Huh, you'd think they'd just returned from a war or something," Zoro grunted.

Then they were all ushered into a huge building where people served them dishes and dishes of steamy hot food. Luffy was enjoying the attention. He ate every plate of food in sight and the people cheered and clapped whenever he finished one dish.

Sanji was drinking beer and flirting with 30 different girls at once.

Ussop was bragging/lying about once having 10000000000 men in his crew and to be the strongest on who only survived in a great storm at sea, when they were all eaten by a giant octopus except for him and how he defeated the octopus and then got Sanji to cook it up for him and then he ate it. And all the people listening believed in him. And he was lying!

Nami and Zoro looked around them, their mouths open so wide that they touched the ground and with little anime-style sweat drops on their faces.

"I can't believe we know these guys," Nami murmured.

"I can't believe they're ALL SO STUPID!" Zoro half-yelled out loud.

After lunch, the people showed them around the city, and that took most of the day. Zoro got bored after bout two seconds and went to look for somewhere where he could get his swords cleaned.

"Zoro?" Nami turned around. He was gone.

"Zoro?" She started to panic.

"Zoro, where are you?" She left the group and started to look for the swordsman. _Crap, _she thought, _why do I care? He's just some stupid conceited punk who uses swords. And he's really cool and kinda cute, I guess…_

She dreamily walked through the streets then she paused. "WHAT AM I SAYING!" she screamed.

"Good question. What were you saying?"

She glared daggers at Zoro who was smirking at her from behind a corner. "I just went to get my swords cleaned. And why do you care?"

"Exactly. I don't." she pouted. "Hmmm, Zoro? Zoro, where are you?"

she heard maniacal laughter coming from a building nearby. "Zoro, you…"

"Now where did everybody go?" she and Zoro wandered around the streets. It was nearly dark.

Zoro bit his lip. "I bet all their 'fans' probably took them to a five-star hotel somewhere for no charge."

"HEY NAMI! ZORO! OVER HERE!" Luffy waved them over to a five-star hotel where the people had let them stay for no charge. They hurried over to join the rest of their crew.

"Too bad you guys missed dinner," Luffy grinned. "Did you eat anything?"

"Yeah. My boots." Zoro grumbled.

Nami elbowed him in the stomach. "ARGH!"

She pulled him to her room. "Listen," she whispered. "I really think there's something going on here, and only you and me can sense it."

Zoro looked at her. "Yeah, like what?"

"Like why the people here are treating us so nice when they don't even know us!" She hissed.

"Uh-huh."

"And why they are praising us like we just saved the world…"

"And why Luffy and Sanji and Ussop are acting as if there's nothing wrong." Zoro finished.

"Right."

"Wrong."

"What?"

"There's something wrong here. I'm sure that _someone's _in charge of this city."

"Yeah."

There was a silence.

"I'm going to bed," Zoro said. He turned and started to go to his room. At the last second. He looked back, hesitated and said, "Goodnight,"

She watched him go. "Goodnight…"

Next morning, Nami woke up and wondered where she was. The windows were open and the sunlight was streaming inside. She looked around the room and marveled at the beautiful furniture and the colour of the walls.

Then something struck her. Something was very wrong.

Nami went to the window and looked outside. The streets were empty and deserted like they were before.

She threw back the covers, got dressed and went off to look for the others. She went to Luffy's room first. The bed was unmade and there was no sign of him in it. _ He wouldn't leave his crew, would he? He probably just went to get food._

She went up to Sanji's room which looked like Luffy's. It was messy but empty. Nami was starting to get confused. _Where'd they go?_

She ran to Ussop's room and threw back the covers which revealed no-one. She panicked. _Where could they have gone?_

She ran over to Zoro's room, now feeling really sick in the stomach. _don't tell me he disappeared! _She dove into his bed and buried deep into the covers, throwing all the junk on his bed off. Nami gritted her teeth, and started to cry. _Why the HECK am I crying? Stupid, stupid, stupid…_

"I only want you to get in my bed when I'm in it, okay?" he said.

She turned and looked at Zoro. He was standing in the doorway, watching her.

"Zoro, I'm so glad you're here!" she flung herself at him and nearly toppled him over.

He grunted.

She clung onto him, sobbing. He stood still. "What's this about?" he asked finally.

"The others. They're gone." she cried.

His face grew pale. "Don't tell me…" he started.

Nami started to cry out louder. "STOP CRYING ALREADY!" he yelled. "I CAN'T STAND IT…when you cry like that…"

She stopped, sniffling.

Zoro grabbed her arm and dragged her outside. "We have to find the others. It's probably got something to do with this strange place. Hmmm… I wonder where everybody went."

The streets were still empty.

Nami had stopped crying now but was walking so close to Zoro that she kept stepping on his heels.

"HEY QUIT THAT!" he shouted.

"SORRY."

He grunted in reply and she followed him around and around.

"Um, Zoro, do you even know where you're going?"

And he didn't. But he was too proud to admit that so he said, "WELL, DER I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING… Now where am I going?"  
And that's when she hit him in frustration.

They tried to find people to talk about wherever Luffy and the others could've gone, but the people seemed afraid of them and hid from them.

"Now what are we gonna do?" Zoro asked.

"That's my line," said Nami. "What are we gonna do?"

"Let's go look for them," he said. He stood up and pulled Nami to her feet. "I think they're somewhere around the centre of the city."

"What if they've been kidnapped and drugged and turned evil?"

"You've been watching too many of those cop shows," he said.

"How? The ship doesn't even have a TV."

Even so, they inspected the biggest buildings in the city, but they found nothing. So they went back to Luffy's room and had a look.

"Does it look like they've been any signs of struggle?" Zoro asked.

"Now you're sounding like a cop from the show," Nami rolled her eyes.

"I think they must've dragged him off the bed and took him away."

"Then how come they didn't take us too? Whoever 'they' is."

Zoro sighed. He sat on Luffy's bed and said, "Well, we… we didn't eat any dinner… maybe they did drug them and kidnap them."

Nami watched him, secretly glad that he was with her in this.

"Good work. The Straw Hat crew is out like a blackout hit them."

"Er, sir, it seems that two of them are not here."

"WHAT?"

"Yes sir, the swordsman Roronoa Zoro and the girl."

"Well, you better get them back or-"

"YES SIR, YES SIR! I will-"

"And quick or-"

"Yes sir!" The guy ran outside.

The boss sighed. "Yes, go and get them back or else everyone will suffer."

Emichii: Whassup, everybody? Yeah, I know this chapter pretty much sucked. And I'm already out of inspiration for the plot, but I'm still budding on ideas for Nami and Zoro's… Ahem… love.

Did I actually say that? Okay, so Nami and Zoro are the couple in this. Any ideas for the plot peoples?


	3. Chapter 3

**  
Chapter Three- Just an Act**

"HEY GUYS!" Luffy's loud voice shouted.

It was a new day, and it turned out that Nami and Zoro had fallen asleep on Luffy's bed. Zoro was lying back, sleeping, his feet on the pillow. Nami was snoring lightly; her head was leaning on Zoro's stomach.

"WAKE UP!" he yelled in Zoro's ear.

"ARGH!" Zoro jumped out of bed as though the bed was on fire. "Luffy!"

"Eh?" Nami's eyelids fluttered opened. "LUFFY!" She screamed. "Where were you?"

Sanji and Ussop came into the room casually.

Nami let out a sigh of relief but Zoro was wondering why they'd just disappear and then come back.

It was extremely odd, Zoro thought, how they could all disappear into thin air and then come back again and act like nothing happened. He watched Nami, Luffy and the others cheering and drinking and decided to be on his guard.

It was evening when eerie things started to Nami.

The straw hat crew had been drinking and laughing and joking around, and slowly all the drinks got to them and they had fallen asleep. Nami blinked her eyes opened and surveyed the scene. Drunken people were lying all over the floor asleep. She couldn't help smiling at the scene.

"Hey, where's Luffy and everyone?" she wondered.

"ARGH… arrr…arr…"

"Eeeek!" She jumped and spun around in mid-air to face her attacker. She was expecting some stupid drunk pervert who was still half asleep but what she saw made her temperature drop.

"EEEEEEKKKKKSSS!"

A man went at her with a club.

She watched in horror as the people rose up from the ground one by one and came at her with knives and sticks and brooms and carving knives. She knew they weren't drunk; they were doing it on purpose.

She was surrounded. They were rising like the living dead- like mummies under a curse, eyes glazed over as they stared at the girl.

A man jumped at her with a baseball bat. Nami screamed and pushed through more people to get to the doorway. When she got out she looked around frantically for someplace to run, anywhere- just somewhere safe.

"ARR…arrr…grrrrraaaaaa…" The weird mumblings grew louder again. They were coming after her.

Where were they? Where was her crew?

From atop a very high building, the men in black stood with their boss, looking like evil businessmen. Their boss rubbed his hands together and watched the orange-haired girl run from the evil people.

"Ha, ha… Perfect!" he smiled, showing his gold tooth. "They have no place to hide!"

Nami ran. They were everywhere!

People with their brooms and knives; chasing after her. They were coming out of their shops and houses. Even kids with their pretend lightsabers and plastic arrow sets. Their eyes were glazed all over, they looked evil and Nami felt hysterical.

She ran and hid behind a wall and waited while the people walked past. Then a man found her and motioned to the others and Nami was cornered. She ran past them, wishing she had a portable hole to jump into. Then she ran into…

"LUFFY!"

Nami had never been so happy to see her captain. Luffy could help her with his gum gum power. Nami clung onto Luffy and screamed, "LUFFY! THEY'RE ALL MAD! HELP!"

Luffy growled at her.

Nami jumped back. His eyes were red and glazed over. She saw Evil Sanji and Evil Ussop emerge from the crowd of evil people.

They crowded around her and surrounded her from all sides, waving their carving knives and yelling their weird language.

As they closed in on her, she lifted her face to the sky and let out a scream:

"ZOROOOO!"

Emichii! Just thinking how nice it would be to leave you all hanging but I'm gonna be nice and keep writing to make up for not updating for so long…

HEE hee… I'm laughing imagining how funny it would be if Zoro swung by on a vine, yelling like Tarzan and saved Nami! HEE HEE… Anyway DON'T GO! I haven't finished this chapter yet!

The guy with aqua-green hair swooped down then like an eagle and yelled, "EAGLE SLASH!"

I wonder if that attack actually exists… remember when he yelled ONIGIRI? Wasn't that hilarious?

With his three swords, he slashed down and the people fell back. He did a perfect somersault and landed in front of Nami, looking very defensive.

Nami almost felt afraid that Zoro would turn against her too but then he gave her a quick glance and an almost affectionate pained smile.

Nami felt her heart beat faster.

Zoro grunted, "Get outta here before they come back…" he said with the sword in his mouth.

The fallen people were starting to get up again. Nami barely managed to scrape past them.

She ran as fast as she could, into a dark alleyway.

_Thankyou Zoro…_

Zoro had heard Nami's cry for help and had responded as quickly as possible. He scanned the crowd of evil people. _Luffy? What on earth are you doing on their side? They're turning you evil!_

Luffy growled. Zoro frowned. Then Luffy let a Gum Gum rocket and Zoro just managed to dodge that and a knife which was flying at him but then he dodged it and it flew at Luffy, burying itself into Luffy's head.

Luffy let out a cry of pain and fell back to nurse his poor head, sending Sanji into the action with his lighting-quick footwork. Zoro had never even tried battling the curly-eye browed blonde but now he had a taste of his shoes and he didn't like it.

Zoro had to protect himself but how could he without injuring his evil ship-mates?

Nami bit her lip and watched, in tears as her crew turned against each other and fought hard.

_Why? What happened?_

Zoro became so psyched that he did his best attack ever. He whirled his swords around in multiple directions over and over at such a speed that his opponents couldn't catch what happened.

When he ended the attack, Luffy, Sanji, Ussop and everyone else was lying on the ground. Zoro sensed great danger; he knew they would get up again.

"Zoro!"

Nami ran toward the swordsman, tears falling. She buried her face in his chest and he didn't object.

They said nothing.

The night was quiet except for the sound of Nami's sobbing.

Zoro heard Luffy mumbling. He heard people starting to get up again.

He gave Nami a desperate look, "They're getting back up,"

Nami clung to him frightfully.

He grunted, "You have got to get outta here! Right now!"

She was shocked, "No, Zoro, I can't go-"

"GET OUT! NOW!" he yelled.

"No, I can't leave without-"

He grabbed her wrist, "I'll stay here, but Nami, if you don't go now, you're gonna die!"

He jerked her towards the ship, eyeing the people out of the corner of his eye.

"Go! Take the ship! GET OUTTA HERE! NOW!"

The tears fell from her eyes. "Zoro…"

Zoro looked down at her and then did something. Almost out of desperation, he bent down and kissed her gently on the lips.

Nami couldn't stop crying.

Zoro clenched his fists. "NAMI!" he shouted. "Go!"

She stood on her tiptoes and grabbing hold of his elbows, she kissed him back gently, then the tears blurring her sight, she ran.

She ran as fast as she could towards the ship.

Then she saw something that made her gasp. Luffy had grabbed someone's axe and heaved it at Zoro's chest. She saw the blood and immediately started to head back. But people started to chase her again.

Gasping, she ran to the ship, pulled off the anchor and set sail immediately.

Her heart throbbed as she looked back at the people fighting. She cried aloud in the cool night air.

There was good wind, and the ship left the port easily, leaving Zoro, Luffy, Sanji, Ussop and Microsoft Island behind.

Emichii: Wow, since when did I become such a romance author? Ha! I thought I wrote comedies! Oh well, who cares? Now the story is becoming really interesting! Yup, my inspiration is definitely back!


	4. Chapter 4

Emichii: Don't own One Piece. Wow, that earlier chapter was so serious; I've got to lighten the mood again. Oh well. Here's chapter four!

**Chapter Four- coming back**

Nami shivered in the cool night air. It was freaky. And quiet. There was no-one on the ship except her. She remembered the frightful events that had just happened. The thing that scared her most was the way Luffy, Sanji and Ussop were so… evil!

She checked the maps and immediately regretted leaving Zoro behind. What was she thinking? How could she leave her fellow crew-mates behind to die? She remembered Zoro's anxious face and how worried he was. All that time, he was just worried about her.

She had to go back.

She turned the boat and set the sails again to Microsoft Island.

All she could do now was to wait and hope.

Hope that Zoro would be alright.

Zoro stepped back.

Luffy snarled in his face.

_What the heck is with you guys? _He ducked quickly as Sanji aimed a kick at his head.

"Luffy, wake up! What's wrong with you?" he shouted. _Answer me for Pete's sake! _

"Gum Gum Rocket!" Luffy used his all-too familiar attack at Zoro and Zoro knew, he knew that he would have to fight back. He only hoped that Luffy, Sanji and Ussop would snap out of it quickly.

Quickly he dodged Luffy's attack and ran behind a building, jumping over the bodies all over the street. Luffy, Sanji and Ussop chased him.

Zoro set his jaw and dug in, running as fast as possible. He found a meat shop nearby and hid behind an oversized pig (a fake one, duh).

"Oooooh meat!" Luffy's high-pitched voice cried as he ran into the meat shop and ate all the meat he could find, raw.

_That's sick. _Zoro frowned and held his breath as the Luffy he knew returned.

Weirdly enough, Sanji and Ussop snapped out of it too. _Maybe it was the meat. _

Feeling sick he tried to sneak away but the pig he was hiding behind got caught in his shirt.

"Eeiihh! THE PIG'S GETTING AWAY!" Luffy chased the pig. "PORK! YAAAYYYY!"

"ARGHHH!" Zoro shouted and pumped down the street as fast as lightning.

Luffy ripped the pig away from Zoro and stuffed it in his mouth.

"Stupid, that's plastic." Sanji said coolly, the lollipop sticking out of his mouth.

"Hahahaha!" Ussop's loud laugh startled them. "I can't believe a captain like you could eat plastic!"

"Guys…" Zoro breathed. "What was with you guys?"

They looked at him and Luffy said, "What happened?"

Ussop snickered. "You ate plastic!"

Zoro shook his head, "you guys all went crazy and started trying to kill me and Nami!"

Sanji advanced on Zoro. "What about you and Nami? What were you two doing?"

Zoro waved his hands and cried, "No, you're getting the wrong idea, you mean you really don't remember anything?"

Ussop snickered. "I'll certainly remember Luffy eating a plastic pig!"

Zoro sighed.

"ZORO!"

Zoro turned his head swiftly and he saw Nami emerge from the dim light. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?" he yelled. "I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU TO GO AWAY!"

Nami started to run towards Zoro and Sanji started to run towards her. "Oh Nami, my dear!"

"EEKKK!" Nami avoided Sanji. "Don't touch me! I'm too young to die!"

She started to run away and her show flew off her foot and clunked Sanji on the head. Nami watched Sanji collapse.

"EEEEKKKKKKK! I killed him! ARGHHH!" she screamed.

Zoro gazed up at the rising sun. Was it because of the morning that they all turned normal again?

"I KILLED SANJI!"

Zoro rolled his eyes. "As if you could kill Sanji with a shoe.

Luffy blinked at Nami. "Oh hi Nami."

Nami frowned, wondering the same thing as Zoro.

"Well, hi…" she said.

She stood next to Zoro, and edged as close to him as possible without stepping on his toes. Zoro grunted at her and looked back at Luffy. "Well?"

"Well what?" his captain asked.

"When are we gonna leave Microsoft Island?"

Luffy rubbed his chin. "How about ' when I feel like it'?"

Nami sighed. "Luffy, I don't wanna stay on this island." she looked around nervously, as if someone was watching her, "I don't like this island."

Zoro folded his arms and watched Luffy carefully.

Luffy shrugged. "Oh well, we'll leave soon enough."

He waved to Ussop and they headed over to the five-star hotel, dragging Sanji with them.

"Heh heh heh…"

Zoro turned around swiftly. Nothing.

He turned around to face Nami again. "That's funny. I could've sworn I heard something."

Nami frowned. "I didn't hear anything."

"Heh heh heh…"

This time, both of them turned and faced… nothing.

"Who's there?" Nami asked timidly.

"Hi girly…" a smooth, dangerous voice spoke.

"EEKK! BIG BROTHER!" she screamed.

Zoro glared at Nami. "Hey. Chill." he turned to wherever the voice came from. "Show yourself!"

Emichii: Yo everybody! How are you all? Don't you like my mini-cliffy? I do! YAAAYYY! I'm so grateful to all of my reviewers! I'm getting heaps and heaps of reviews for everyone of my current and previous fanfic! And that's great! Read and Review!

PS. Question: Who's your fave One Piece Character? I'll post the results on my next chapter! Review and tell me! Oh and don't forget- Chopper included!


	5. Chapter 5

Emichii: HELLO PEOPLES! Thanks for all your reviews! I really appreciate them all!

Has anyone been wondering where Chopper was? Well, I haven't forgotten him, just planned to have him come out later. Hee hee… got a great idea for that one!

Oh and here are the results for the question: who's your fave one piece character?

One person liked either Nami or Zoro best, two people liked Zoro the best, and well, actually I do too (but Luffy comes close). I mean, what's not to like about him? He's shy and he's got a hot-tempered, isn't that a nice combination! He's cool! I love Zoro! YAAAYYY!

**Chapter five- Evil businessmen.**

"Show yourself!"

Nami covered her eyes. She could imagine it now. Horrible monsters, evil businessmen, Big Brother, demons, whatever… they were coming to get her!

And she was partly right.

A tall man in a black suit and red tie stood on the roof of a nearby building with a briefcase in his hand. He was wearing sunglasses and was sturdily built and looked like he'd been working out.

"Well…" he chuckled.

"What do you want?" Zoro asked.

He slid his sunglasses lower and looked at Nami over the top of the rims in a way Nami could only describe as chillingly.

"I want you two… dead."

"Actually, I want all of you dead." he said again.

Zoro narrowed his eyes at the evil businessmen. "All of who?"

"Your measly little group you call a pirate crew! Haha… you really think that you can get to the Grand Line? Think that you can actually get One Piece? Hee… you'll have to get through me first! And your friends."

Nami spoke up. "What do you mean?"

"You did something with the others, didn't you?" Zoro said.

"Heh heh…" he laughed, "Well, Nami, to answer your question… your captain and our crew-mates are all against you. Thanks to my wonderful potions I put in their food, they'll do exactly as I tell them! Ha, and they didn't suspect a thing, they just ate everything like the pigs they are!"

"How do you know my name?" Nami cried, "And who are you anyway?"

"That's for me to know and you to find out… and I say, you can call me… Shale."

Stupid name, I know, but I can't think of anything else! Heh, I've been doing my geology homework, Haha!

"You've been taking control over everyone in this city, am I correct?" Zoro countered.

"Amazing, some of your stupid pirate crew actually have brains." Shale laughed evilly. He looked at his watch in a cool way and flicked back his dark black her with his hands. "Oh I must say, I'd like to stay longer but I do have to go now…"

Zoro leapt up at him and tried to attack him, saying, "You're not getting away, not unless you're a dead spirit anyway…"

But when he slashed at the figure, he wasn't there.

"Where'd you go now? Don't run and hide! Stand up and fight like a man!" Zoro yelled.

Sound like he's trying to impress a certain lady starting with N, hmm?

Nami looked up in alarm when she heard the voice again. It said from somewhere: "If you want to defeat me, you're gonna have to defeat your own crew… and I doubt you'd want to do that… heh heh… but I'm not giving you a choice, fight for your life!"

"Arrr…arrr…grrrrraaaaaa…"

The horrible sound came again. Nami scanned the area around her but couldn't see Luffy or the others anywhere. Suddenly, Zoro's voice startled her, "Nami, look out!"

Sanji came barrelling down at her from the sky. He managed to push her onto the ground and started to attack her.

"EEEKKK! Gross, Sanji!" She angrily kicked the guy off her and grabbed the closest object to defend herself… which happened to be a pitchfork resting against the wall.

_Crap, I knew he was absolutely smitten, but this is crazy!_

Then the all-familiar guy in a straw hat dove down and grabbed her with his stretchy rubber arms. "Eek!"

Luffy swung her around and around then let go and she went flying. Nami screamed.

She felt herself plunging down faster and faster. She could see the ground from above now. Then she saw a green dot dart out from nowhere.

"Zoro!" she gasped.

Zoro darted out and caught her. Nami felt like her heart was about to spring out of her chest. After such a plunge from so high, Nami didn't think that she'd be scared of anything else.

Ussop aimed his slingshot at his target, stretched out the elastic and shot.

Nami saw it coming before Zoro did, "Watch out, Zoro!" she squealed. _Since when did Ussop start shooting bullets? _

Zoro tossed Nami aside to a patch of grass and started to run.

Nami bit her nails. _He'll never be able to outrun a bullet! _She saw Zoro dodge a bullet which went flying into Sanji's back, making Sanji turn around with fiery evil red eyes.

Ussop kept loading and firing. Nami squeezed her eyes shut.

_Please be okay…_

_Zoro…_

"AAARRGHH!"

Zoro's cry of agony caused Nami to blink open her eyes and look around alarmed.

She saw him.

He was crouched on the ground, with one hand on the ground for balance and the other one on his hip, looking a little off-balance but okay. Nami sighed with relief. But then she saw him remove his hand from his hip.

_Drip, drip._

The sound of blood on the pavement proved it. Zoro was not alright.

Nami ran to Zoro and tried to support his hip, her hands getting bloody.

Nami looked at the blood on her hands. There were purple liquid mixed in with it.

"Poison."

Zoro looked around pain-stakingly. "Quick, run. They're coming."

Luffy, Sanji and Ussop were starting to come in on them. "Go, run…" Zoro urged her.

Nami felt the salty tears roll down her face. She brushed them away with her bloody hands, smearing the blood all over her face. "No way, Zoro."

"I'm not leaving you again," She helped Zoro get to his feet. They ran, Zoro limping and gasping out. Nami winced every single time she saw the blood on the ground.

Zoro was suffering, Nami felt awful. She felt that she was the reason for Zoro's injury. She saw an hole in the wall and motioned for Zoro to follow. They crept into the hole and following a small passageway they found a dark little room. Nami collapsed on the ground, crying and gasping.

Zoro lay back in exhaustion. But when he didn't move, Nami saw that it was because the poison was starting to get to him. She cried silently and wished that Chopper was there but he was back in the ship, hibernating in the hold.

Zoro gasped out in pain. Nami stayed by his side.

_Please, _she prayed, _please don't let Zoro die._

Then Zoro went into a coma.

Emichii: There you go! That was chapter five! Did you like it? Read and Review!


	6. Chapter 6

Emichii: YAAAYYY! Chapter Six is here! I hope you all like it so far, I think it's getting better as it goes. Read and Review! Oh by the way, I don't own One Piece; Shonen Jump and Eiichiro Oda own it!

**Chapter six- Ow! That really hurt!**

Zoro groaned and opened his eyes. On instinct he tried to sit up but firm hands pushed him back down.

"Lie down, don't get up or your wound will hurt even more!"

Zoro blinked at the blurry blob in front of him. As his vision cleared, he saw Nami on her knees next to him, cleaning his wound as best as possible.

"Nami." he said.

Nami looked at him. Her eyes were still teary.

Zoro tried to sit up again. "ARGH! THAT HURT!"

Nami rolled her eyes. "I told you to stay down."

"Yeah I know, I just wanted to do one thing." Zoro reached over and brushed away Nami's tears. "I can't handle crying girls."

Nami managed a small smile.

"Now, just hold still. This might hurt a bit…" Nami tried to clean Zoro's wound.

"Owwww… eiiiahhhh…ARGH!"

Nami blinked away her tears. "I'm sorry… I wish I was a better doctor."

"Hey, that's okay. That's why we have Chopper. And that's why you're the navigator."

Silence.

Zoro watched Nami bandage the wound.

"Thanks," he said.

Nami smiled. "That's okay. No problem!"

Zoro heaved himself up, groaning. Nami jumped up. "Are you okay? Shouldn't you stay put?"

"Who, me?" Zoro examined Nami's face critically. "Stay put? Get real, Nami! We have to go and stop that Shell guy-"

"Shale-"

"Yeah, Shale guy. And we have to get Luffy, Sanji and Ussop to snap out of it…"

Nami added cautiously, "we have to wake up Chopper. Remember, poison in your wound? How was I supposed to get the poison out?"

Zoro put a hand on Nami's shoulder, "Just chill. I'll survive."

Nami looked at Zoro, the tears rolling down his cheeks. "You mean, you don't _care_? You're just gonna wait here and _die_? I can't let that happen! If you just _died _and left me here all alone, that would make me hate you even more! What would I _do? _Go and dig you a _grave­-_"

"I'm not gonna die," Zoro said quietly.

He leant over Nami and their faces came extremely close and then…

"Well, isn't this a tender scene?" an unrecognizable voice said.

They jumped.

Luffy and Ussop came in from a hole in the roof.

Zoro stood in front of Nami protectively.

Ussop just laughed and said in a weird voice, "Heh, you might as well spend the rest of your time cuddling with your girl as you're gonna die soon anyway… That poison is slow but it works surprisingly well… and if I'm accurate… you have 3 hours before you die…"

Nami clutched Zoro's sleeve.

Zoro glared at Luffy and Ussop.

"What is with you guys?" he said. "Trying to kill your first crew member?"

Luffy and Ussop paused for a second and Zoro grabbed Nami's arm and pulled her out the hole they came in through.

They ran hard.

Zoro grunted as his sore hip burned with pain. Nami constantly worried about him. What would she do if he was gone?

_You have 3 hours before you die…_

Ussop's scary voice kept haunting Zoro's mind. What was he supposed to do? His brain was overflowing with all his problems- _Crap; I don't need anything else to worry about right now!_

He knew he was in danger of dying and he had to go get Chopper right now but he had to stay and fight for Nami.

As he ran, Nami called to him shrilly, "Zoro, we can't keep going! The only thing we can do is fight!"

"Fight our own crew?" Zoro cried incredously.

Nami yelled back. "YES!" she felt the hot tears on her face streaming down. "If we don't, the poison will get to you and you'll die! You'll die, Zoro! And… and I… don't want… to see you die, Zoro…" Nami started sniffling.

_Oh no not now! Don't turn on the waterworks. _Zoro groaned. _I'm such a sucker for a crying girl!_

"Okay, okay…" Zoro sighed. _I can't believe I'm such a pushover with her! _

Just then Shale's deep cool voice laughed at him.

Zoro scanned the area in front of him. "Where are you?"

"I am here."

Zoro and Nami looked up and Shale was standing on the roof of the largest building in the city, his lips curled in a smile that taunted Zoro. "I'm quite amused, really." he said.

"WHAT?" Zoro shouted.

"I just want to watch you spend the last 3 hours of your life in total panic…" Shale looked at Nami, smirking, "And what will you do, girly? What will you do when your lover is dead? Of course I wouldn't mind filling in that position… but you'll be dead soon too…"

Nami and Zoro gave him the most contemptuous, disbelieving look ever.

"Lover?" Nami shrieked.

"Are you crazy? Don't you know the law of Swordsmen? No relationships, no alchohol-"

Nami snickered. "Well you obviously didn't obey the second one… I've seen you drunk before."

While Nami and Zoro were bickering, Shale laughed louder.

"Well, what on earth are you gonna do now? You can't even get along together, you'll never defeat me… Oh and Zoro… your 3 hours really aren't much…" Shale taunted.

Zoro tightened his grip on his swords. He hated anyone that insulted him.

Shale took a lengthy jump into the air so that the moon in the night sky behind him seem to shout his presence louder than ever,

"Go, my slaves!" he cried.

Obediently, Luffy, Sanji and Ussop jumped off nearby buildings to attack Zoro.

_Sshhhing! _

Zoro drew his three swords. Just before he placed Kuina's sword in his mouth and just before the others attacked him, he whispered to Nami, "Go and use your thieving skills…"

Nami nodded blindly and managed to run away from the danger.

She knew exactly what Zoro meant. If she could snoop around Shale's headquarters, she could find out more about the stuff that had turned Luffy and the others against them. Maybe she could find an antidote or something. He heart leapt as she thought about Zoro and the poison that was slowly working it deadly spell over him, maybe; maybe… she could find something to save Zoro too.

She looked over to her wristwatch as she ran, _what's the time? How much longer does Zoro have? …there are…only about 2 hours and 40 minutes left!_

Nami quickened her pace.

When she finally slowed down, her experienced thieving skills lead her to a shiny tall building which said 'Microsoft Computer Company'.

Of course, if Shale was an evil businessman then the headquarters would have to be in a business.

She entered the building and immediately caused a lot of suspicion. But she was experienced at this; she walked primly to the guy at the front desk and whispered, "I'm here to do a quick business check around here. I need to see the boss."

She winked at the guy and he fell head over heels. "Of course, Miss… he's on level 30."

She gave the guy a mysterious smile, shook her hair out as she walked.

As soon as she was in the elevator, she dropped the act and waited anxiously for the elevator to reach level 30.

28…29…30!

_Ding!_

The little bell announced her arrival. She watched the doors opened, and sent another little prayer to the heavens. _Please…let Zoro be alright._

Emichii: HEY EVERYONE! HOW R Y'all? HEY SAZ! Okay, well, that was a nice chapter, wasn't it? Now I'm gonna ask everyone a very hard question, and don't faint when I tell you the answer on the next chapter. I was wondering if my writing shows how old I am…

So readers, Review and guess…How old am I? How old could Emichii be? SAZ DON'T TELL THEM THE ANSWER!


	7. Chapter 7

Emichii: Well, what did you get for the answer? Should I tell you now? Or not? But the guesses you guys are giving are really funny! Someone thought that I was 100 and then they said that I was 16. WOW! HEE HEE! Especially since my friends think I am so immature -_Will she ever grow up? _I really wanna make you all wait… I'll tell you how old I am, just wait a couple of years first…Nah, just kidding. Okay the truth is I'm 12! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I know, I'm just such I great writer, heh heh. Oh that sounded so conceited there. Well I'm almost 13 actually. Waaaaahhhhh! I'm still so short!

Anyway, read and review!

**Chapter 7- Snooping Around**

Nami stepped out the elevator and had her first look around. Pretty weird.

It was an office obviously, but Nami was extremely sure that they were hiding something here. She walked past a few rooms and then found a room that was four times as large as the others.

She went inside and looked around.

"Hmm?" There was a desk with drawers. She went through the first drawer. Nothing special in there. Just paper clips, pens, a calculator, random stuff and stash.

The second drawer was locked. _Weird. _Nami thought.

The third drawer was also locked. _Dammit._ She had been so sure that she'd be able to find something here. She stood a chair and looked on top of an extremely tall file cabinet. It wasn't very dusty which was odd because it was so high up, who would bother to clean up there?

Nami saw some weird things up there. A boxing glove, for example. What was with that? She rummaged around carefully in the pile of stuff and found a key in the boxing glove.

_Pretty good hiding place, _she had to admit.

She hopped off the chair and tried the key in the second drawer. When it didn't fit, she went after the third drawer.

Carefully, she inserted the key and turned it cautiously. It opened!

"Yes!" she said. She pulled the drawer out and then jumped in alarm when she heard the voices.

"_How is the power?"_

"_Optimum effiency, sir."_

"_Excellent. Huh?"_

"_Malfunction is sector 7G, sir."_

_Oh no! _If there was a malfunction, was it her intruding? Nami looked around for people in black suits with guns. Then she heard the next few lines.

"_SIMPSON, GET UP HERE!"_

Nami sighed with relief. False alarm. It was just the _Simpsons. _

_I wonder who would watch TV during work, though. _Nami climbed onto the chair again to locate wherever the sound was coming from. She spotted a window near the very top of the wall. To get to it, she had to climb onto the top of file cabinet and then leap across to the top of a bookshelf.

She took a chance and jumped.

When she landed, she looked into the window and saw a big group of men in black suits gathered around a television. They were laughing and enjoying themselves.

"Go Simpson!" They cheered.

Nami shook her head in disbelief. Then she leapt off and went back to work. When she slipped the drawer open, she was frustrated by finding a little black box that had four padlocks. She rummaged under it and found some odd folders and papers.

She caught the neatly typed title of the first page- PLAN FOR GLOBAL DOMINATION.

Nami took a seat in the comfy cushioned seat and started reading.

Zoro frowned at the evil crew mates. Would they ever give up?

So far, Luffy had wrapped himself around a pole and was using himself to be a slingshot. He shot Sanji into Zoro over and over.

Zoro gasped. He was starting to vomit out blood now.

Yuck.

_Nami, where the hell are you? You're taking too long!_

Ussop wasn't letting Zoro get away either. He was chasing him and throwing bombs at him.

_Bombs? Where'd they come from?_

Zoro couldn't possibly fight bombs. The only way to avoid further injury was to run. Zoro took off. He ran and ran and came to a cliff.

_WHAT IS THIS? A BAD CARTOON?_

Ussop, Sanji and Luffy advanced on him, making those weird growling noises. Zoro took a chance… and jumped.

He was falling. Falling…

When he could almost see the bottom, he unleashed his plan. He did a great big whirlwind attack with his swords and used the force to push himself towards the edge of the cliff where he used his swords and dug them into the rock to keep him on.

_Shale._

Where was he?

He had to kill. Get rid of the boss. If he could get rid of the leader, the others would soon fade away.

Zoro took a huge jump and landed safely on ground. Sanji and Ussop and Luffy charged. The cliff edge was behind him. Zoro's mind clicked.

_If they all fell down the cliff, they wouldn't die. They'd just be unconscious for a long time. It would give me enough time. _

Zoro jumped up. They all ran off the cliff.

He shook his head. Maybe they got meaner. And maybe stronger. But they weren't any smarter.

With still time to go, he went towards the most suspicious building. The biggest building, right in the center of the city. 'Microsoft Computer Company.'

Cautiously, he entered the building. Evil businessmen in every corner.

They had been given instructions to kill the swordsman. Zoro struck, they all collapsed. He grinned, "Ha! I know this! I have to defeat all the people in the building and then the boss will be at the very top!"

And that's just the beginning of the game.

Nami stared at the paper. _What language is this? _It was all in ones and zeroes.

She slapped her forehead in frustration. Der! It's a computer company. A computer company with evil intentions. To prevent anyone from reading their plans, they have to put everything in code.

Nami knew she couldn't possible decipher all of that in so little time. Carefully, she folded it neatly and put it in her pocket. _What's this?_

From the bundle of pages, a smaller note fell out.

_Undo potion's spell, purple antidote in computer hold._

Nami laughed quietly. Well, it seemed that everything was on her side.

Where's the computer hold? She wondered.

Obviously, there wouldn't be any signs that directed her where to go. And if she asked anybody, there would be huge suspicion. So she'd just have to trust her instincts.

She left the office and turned into another corridor.

And stared.

And stared and stared and stared.

A maze? In this building. She smirked, well; Shale certainly did an extremely good job with security.

Nami looked around for something to mark her route. Finding some of the wires for computers in a closet she tied one end to the door handle and entered to maze, trailing the wire behind her.

Zoro went through level after level. When he got to level 30, he was surprised to find no-one there.

_Well…_he thought as he walked through corridors. _I guess I'll just get to the next level. _He turned to go to the elevator but found that the buttons for the next 10 levels had been pulled out.

Zoro grumbled. _Where are the stairs?_

He peeked around in the rooms and found a big maze in one of them. _What the hell?_

He walked around a bit and saw stairs and ledges and that the floor sloped upwards in the maze. _I guess this is the way up…_

And obviously Zoro wouldn't have thought it thoroughly enough to leave a trail to get back, he just went in.

_Where are the people to defeat? _he wondered. Shouldn't they be waiting around for him to kill?

When he came to a cross section, he was surprised to see wire running across the path he was walking on. Zoro shrugged. _I'm not going that way. They're probably trying to trick me._

Nami went up a flight of stairs and looked down. How'd they build this maze? It was a maze that went upwards so that Nami found her self about 3 levels higher than before. She looked at her wire. It would not go any longer that about 2 more kilometres.

It was really really long

_I hope that I've been going the right way. _Nami sighed and leaned against the wall for a breath, and the wall collapsed.

"EEEK!" she jumped.

And then she calmed down. She'd never make it if she made so much noise. She turned and saw that there was a small door in the wall. It seemed just big enough for her to fit in. She giggled and said to herself, "This is gonna be one of my best thieving experiences."

She crawled in.

Zoro sighed. The only way to go up was to follow the wire. Convinced, it was a trap, Zoro kept his trusty swords by his side. When he had gone quite a long way up, Zoro saw a door thing in the wall. It was quite small. He'd never fit on. He saw that the wire lead inside. Zoro walked right past the door and up another flight of stairs.

Nami was surprised on how well the doorhole fit her. When she was inside, there was a tunnel. It was almost as if the tunnel was built for her and only her, everything fit… she was not cramped up at all. Nami wanted to stand up but if she did she would hit her head.

The tunnel went upwards. The tunnel was carpeted and Nami was sure she was gonna get a carpet burn but that couldn't be helped.

She crawled and crawled. To help her move faster, she had to carry the wire in her mouth. She was tired. How much longer could she crawl for? The wire would not last any longer. Just as the wire came to an end, she saw light at the end of the tunnel.

A bright golden light.

She stepped outside of the tunnel.

Emichii: That was a really good chapter. Plenty of action and mystery! YAAYY! Oh how much I love my fanfic! Oh how much I love my fanfic! YAAYY! READ AND REVIEW!


	8. Chapter 8

Emichii: Yeah! WHASSUP EVERYBODY! This is the 8th chapter! I repeat the 8th chapter! YAAYYY! And the plot grows thicker. It's really odd actually, the way I planned this story out, and then… well I guess it just completely changed. Heh heh. Oh well. Here you go… drumroll please… ta dah!

**Chapter Eight- Waahhh! The boss is coming to get me!**

Nami blinked at the brilliant light as she stared into the great huge hall she was in. She really didn't get it now. It was so big. Like the Olympic park! (Now that's _really_ big! How'd they fit that into the building?)

But the thing that surprised her most was that it was mostly empty. She could see a few cartons and computers stacked neatly on the sides but there was this great big space in the middle! She crept to the middle of the room where there was this huge pillar-shaped glass container. She could see a huge block of ice- an ice cube the size of a microwave- with a bottle with purple liquid in it frozen inside.

And how was she supposed to get the antidote?

Zoro was dizzy.

The path he had taken went up and up and up and around and around, just like a very, very tall lighthouse. Groaning, he leant against the wall for a breath and felt a stab of pain in his stomach.

_The poison. _

_How much longer have I got?_

Sighing, he continued up the long flight of stairs and then he saw it. A huge door blocking the way. Zoro turned the doorknob but it wouldn't open.

_Oh please, not NOW! I don't have enough time!_

Zoro angrily bashed himself hard against the door but it wouldn't open. He knew that if he made a lot of noise, he'd get caught.

Exasperated, he grabbed his swords and quickly cut the door down.

When he had walked into the room, he was surprised at what he saw.

Nami pressed her hand against the ice and then quickly retracted it.

_Oh, that was cold!_

She looked around. _Is there an axe around here? _

"Nami?"

Zoro was standing on a balcony with no safety rail around it. It was metres and metres above the ground and he could see a huge, Olympic park-sized all underneath.

And he could see a small figure there, staring at a microwave-sized block of ice and frowning.

"Nami?"

"Zoro?"

Nami looked up hopefully, but didn't see anything. _Where? I know that was Zoro's voice!_

"Nami! I'm over here!" Zoro said loudly.

"Zoro!" She looked up and around but no, there was nothing there.

"NAMI! ARE YOU BLIND?"

"NO I AM NOT BLIND! I just can't see you!" she cried.

Zoro thought she was joking, just trying to annoy him but then he saw her look straight at him, their eyes locking. Zoro suddenly his face grow hot. He looked away.

"I still can't see you!" Nami yelled.

"Yeah, but I'm here! On the balcony, like 20 metres above you!"

"There is no balcony!" she yelled back.

He grimaced. _There was a crazy, serious vibe here._

He looked around quickly, sure that Shale- the boss, would be here watching.

"Zoro? Are you still here?" she yelled.

"I'm here, Nami… but I think someone else is here too."

"EH?"

"Well… I am impressed…"

That smooth, dangerous voice alarmed Nami. _Not again! And I still can't see anything! It's just the block of ice!_

Suddenly, an invisible force grabbed Nami and started to choke her.

Nami spluttered. "Hey, let go of me, whoever you are!"

She started to squirm, "Zoro, this isn't funny! That boss is here!"

"I KNOW! Nami, I'm coming!"

Then a green blur passed as Zoro appeared, grabbing Nami and kicking away the invisible force away.

Nami panted, leaning against Zoro for support. "What happening? Zoro, where did you come from?"

"Up there."

Nami looked up. "Where?"

Zoro frowned. "Hey! I can't see it either!"

Just then, the invisible force changed and Shale appeared. "I really am impressed."

He laughed.

Nami spat in his face, "What did you do that for? You could've killed me!"

"Exactly what I was trying to do." Shale examined their faces carefully. "This is really surprising… that you two can work so well together… Are you two really just crewmates? Or is there something deeper here?"

Zoro suddenly felt defensive about the subject. He reached for his swords and charged at Shale. He slashed hard but did no damage. Furious, he slashed at Shale's feet, and his black shoes fell apart.

Shale laughed. "You'll never get me!"

He started walking through the wall and called back. "Because, Zoro, you're the next one to die!"

Zoro breathed in and out deeply in shock. Nami stared at the wall. "He just walked though the wall!"

He sighed, and then cried out loud as another horrible stab of pain hit him. _How much longer?_

Nami looked over to Zoro with a worried expression. "Are you okay? We better go after him; he knows how to get rid of the poison."

He clenched his fists angrily. "I'm not gonna die! Just stop talking about it!"

He walked over to the block of ice and gestured to it. "Is this it? The antidote?"

Nami nodded.

Zoro slashed at the ice but hardly even chipped it. "Let's try melting it. Drag it out into the sun."

"Okay…"

Nami went to the wall and tried sticking her hand through it. "Hey! It works! Out here, Zoro! We can walk though the wall too!"

Zoro picked up the block of ice, ran outside and dumped it on the ground. Then he did a dance of agony, waving his hands around. "ARGH! MY HANDS! SO COLD! ARGH!"

Nami couldn't help giggling, even in their hopeless position. Zoro glared at her, and when she wasn't looking, just gazed at her dreamily.

But Nami was thinking about different matters.

"Zoro…" she said softly, staring at the ground. "You've saved my life so many times, is it… is it… just cuz I'm a crewmate?"

Zoro said quickly, "Yeah, well, you're a girl- um, a woman."

"So I'm just a girl?"

"Uh-huh."

"YOU MEAN YOU SAVED ME ALL THOSE TIME JUST CUZ I'M A GIRL? THAT'S ALL? DOES THAT MEAN YOU DON'T –" Nami stopped herself and put her hands over her mouth, "Er… pretend I didn't say anything…"

Nami knew that she was falling in love with Zoro but she knew he didn't feel anything for her. Stiffly, she looked away from Zoro and said, "When that ice thaws away we have to get it to the others and wake up Chopper so that he can take away the poison you have."

"Yeah." Zoro replied.

Awkward silence.

Suddenly, without warning, Zoro drew his swords quick as and struck something behind him. His senses had showed him that Shale had been behind him, about to strike, but Zoro caught him first.

Shale leapt up a nearby building, laughed and shook his head, rubbing his chin. "My, my, I really am surprised! You two must be the brains of the entire crew, heh heh… the others are the dumb ones, right?"

Zoro glared at him and leapt up after him, grunting.

Shale smiled an evil grin at them, "How 'bout this, then? With you two, we can all team up and rule the world together- as equals! How does that sound?"

"NEVER!" Zoro said his words with the sword in his mouth. "You'll die first!"

He jumped up above Shale then plummeted down fast, his swords spinning away.

Shale laughed again. "I'm afraid it's too late. It's also sad that you didn't accept my offer. But it seems that your death is coming soon-"

"I'M NOT GONNA DIE!" Zoro yelled.

Just then a huge stab of pain hit him so hard that he gasped out and stumbled.

Shale said, "but I can't be a good guy, you know, I'll spare you the pain… DIE NOW! BE KILLED BY YOUR OWN CREW!"

Right on cue, Luffy, Sanji and Ussop appeared, growling.

Nami shrieked.

Zoro glared at Shale, who laughed.

_C'mon, melt, MELT! _Nami thought desperately as she watched the block of ice in the sun.

It was really taking its time, thought its size had certainly gotten smaller; there was still a long way to go before the antidote was thawed out.

Meanwhile, she had other things to worry about, Sanji running at her with a carving knife.

"WAAAHH!" she screamed and ran.

Zoro clenched his swords tighter. He couldn't save Nami all the time; he had other things to do. Fighting both Ussop and Luffy at the same time, he pushed his way towards Shale, trying to get in closer range so that he could actually hit him.

"Argh!"

Nami looked up as Zoro fell, clutching his side.

"ZORO!" she cried, running up a flight of stairs to get up to where Zoro was.

Shale looked down at Zoro and said, "I can see the poison is getting to you. And that just makes my job easier."

Luffy, Ussop, Sanji and Shale all charged at the fallen Zoro.

"ZORO!" Nami screamed.

Without thinking, she ran back to the ice, which had melted and the antidote was lying in a cold puddle of water. She grabbed it, ripped open the lid and sprayed it all over Luffy, Sanji and Ussop.

Luffy shook his head out and said loudly, "Oh my head hurts!"

"What was I doing just now?" wondered Ussop.

"Oh Nami! Your radiant beauty brightens my day…" Sanji started.

"SHUT UP!" she screamed. "CAN'T YOU SEE THAT WE'RE ABOUT TO DIE?"

Shale clicked his fingers and evil businessmen popped up all over the place. They had a huge lead net and dropped it onto Zoro and the others.

Nami wasn't caught in the net but she was every bit as hysterical.

Shale said, "And now, you will all DIE!"

Emichii: No, I won't make 'em all die! DER NO! What would I do if the main characters die?

Anyway, Chopper makes his appearance right about now so its gonna be way cool when that happens! READ AND REVIEW!


	9. Chapter 9

Emichii: Hey peeps! Isn't One Piece great? I was gonna write Zoro/Kuina originally but I got confused. Is Kuina older than Zoro? I mean, when he was all short and kiddy and cute, she already looked like a teenager. Does that mean she's gonna be married and everything when she meets Zoro again? Anyway, I'll be writing a Zoro/Kuina sometime but now I'm so used to Zoro/Nami, I'm just confused… hahaha! Read and review! NO, I don't own One Piece! Some Japanese guy does! What was his name again? Eiichiro Oda?

**Chapter Nine- Enter the reindeer!**

"AND NOW YOU WILL ALL DIE! WAHAHAHA!"

Shale's evil businessmen aimed their guns at the crew and their fingers reached over to the trigger.

"What's going on?" A yawn came from the other direction.

"Chopper!" Luffy cried. "Hi! How are you?"

Nami wanted to wring Luffy's neck. They were about to die and that was all he was gonna say?

"WWWAAHHHHH!"

Zoro's eyes widened. She watched Shale cover his eyes and cower, shrieking and crying, "WWAAAHHHH! It's a reindeer! Scary! Waahhh! Argh! Help! I'm gonna die!"

Zoro pushed Sanji off from atop of him and struck the net with his sword. As the net fell apart, he ran to Shale and yelled, "Yeah, you will die!"

Nami tried not to laugh. _Shale is absolutely terrified of reindeer._

Chopper was still looking around confused. "What's going on?" he asked hoarsely.

"WWAHHH! It talks!" Shale ran and hid behind one of the businessmen.

"Sir, it's just a reindeer." the guy said.

Shale shook violently and said, "YES! It's a reindeer! It's evil!" he started to run away, backing away to the edge of the building.

(They're on the roof of a building, remember?)

Luffy pulled his long legs out of the net after Ussop and Sanji climbed out. Luffy dragged the rest of the net with him and he stomped over to the evil businessmen and Shale.

"YOU WERE TRYING TO KILL US? THAT REALLY MAKES ME MAD!"

And everybody around him was on the ground in two seconds flat.

Shale continued backing to the edge of the building but instructed his men, "Don't let them escape! I want them all dead! Go, fire!"

The evil businessmen cornered the Straw Hat Crew; suddenly there were hundreds and hundreds of businessmen all over the building.

The guy Shale had been hiding behind spoke up, "Men! Kill them!"

Everything burst into a flurry of activity.

Nami cowered as some businessmen cornered her. _C'mon! I need a weapon! _

One of the men put the gun to her head. "Say your last words, dear…"

"NAMI!"

Zoro cried out in the most alarmed and angry voice ever. He could not dive over and save her in time. He flung his sword as hard as possible, at the last split second at the guy with the gun that was threatening Nami.

Everything that happened after that, happened so fast, yet so slow, as if in slow-mo. The guy pushed the trigger, from such close range, who could miss?

The bullet went at Nami, she screamed and cried. Just then, the sword came flying by, knocking the gun out of the guy's hand and bumping the bullet, setting it off-course.

Instead of flying into Nami's head and insuring her death, the bullet flew past Nami, grazing her left cheek hard and hitting the guy standing behind her.

"Ack!" Nami fell to the ground, the blood all over her cheek. She saw the gun fall the ground, as well as Zoro's sword.

Grabbing the gun and the sword, she pulled herself up and aimed the gun at all the businessmen around her.

Some of them stepped back but one said, "your gun's not gonna shoot fast enough."

Nami retorted, "Then this sword's gonna be faster than any of your bullets."

Some others stepped back now, afraid of dying. The one that had talked before smirked and said, "Dream on… when you're dead!"

Nami didn't take any chances, on impulse, she shot. Then as the guy was falling, she shot again, and again, and again.

Three dead men laid on the ground, the stench of blood overpowering. The others ran away.

Nami collapsed on the ground, crying, in state of shock that she had just killed not one, but three men.

Chopper was extremely confused. Why were all these men in suits attacking them? What had they done?

Thinking back of his poor childhood, Chopper grew angry. _These people are my friends! You will regret all that!_

Chopper grew and grew into his huge reindeer form, Shale whimpered. "WAAHHH! The reindeer's gonna kill us all!"

There were businessmen that had just aimed and shot at Chopper but when he grew bigger, their careful aim was destroyed and the bullets went haywire. Chopper bashed the guys up and ran to attend to Nami.

Sanji was in a spot of trouble himself. He couldn't attack the men, because they were too far away, his legs weren't long enough to hit them from so far away.

And they had guns too and fired over and over again. Sanji ducked and dived and jumped and swerved, trying so hard not to get hit. But the bullets were just do fast, Sanji didn't even have time to think.

Tired and weary, he missed on of the most crucial of bullets; it was aimed at his stomach. Sanji moved late and the bullet hit his side, and got wedged in his hip bone. Sanji staggered to a railing on the building, leaned over the side and vomited.

(Why'd he vomit?)

Because the jumping and pain and everything was too much for him. He vomited and coughed up blood, the putrid stuff fell over the edge and some of it covered Ussop up.

Sanji gasped and wheezed. He couldn't move his fingers. He could see the men advancing, and using the very last of his energy, did a handspring to his feet, placed his hands on the ground and spun that magnificent attack thing with the legs.

The men fell away, and he fell back without the clean finish he usually had.

Then he turned over and fell asleep.

Zoro tried and tried to get at Shale but he was always behind one of his many businessmen.

_How can I possibly get through to Shale? _Zoro did a huge leap and jumping down, did a quick, clean cut.

The men around shale fell away and even Shale was injured. More of his men jumped down to replace those that had gone and Zoro had to repeat and repeat attacks, trying to clear away each group as if, eating layers of cake.

Zoro backed away and away, into the half-vomit covered Ussop. Zoro was surprised at his position and luckily, Ussop thought fast and shot plenty stuff with his slingshot. With only Shale left, Zoro hoped he could finish the boss off.

But Shale knew quite a few moves too. He pushed Zoro to the very edge of the roof where if anyone fell, it would be certain death.

Zoro was pushed over so that his unprotected back was open to Shale and he was facing over the ledge. Shale punched right into Zoro's ribs and he yelled out.

_If only, if only… ii had my other sword._

"Zoro!" Nami cried. She looked up into Zoro's terrified eyes, as he gasped out over the top of the building.

"Nami!" he gasped.

Nami suddenly flung the sword up at Zoro. Zoro caught it with his mouth, spun around and attacked Shale. Shale was extremely surprised and stepped back. Then he caught the sight of Chopper staring at him and turn and ran, but there wasn't anywhere to run, he ended up running over the edge of the building to his death.

"Well, he's dead…" Zoro said painfully as he limped over to Nami, who couldn't stop herself from throwing herself at him. Nami hugged him and cried into his chest as he slumped over her in pain.

"We did it!" Luffy cheered.

"Shush!" Nami cried. She turned to Zoro. "Are you all right? Is your back okay…?"

Zoro gasped out, fell to the ground and said, "Argh…"

"Zoro!" Nami held to him and watched him. "You'll be okay, you'll be okay…"

Zoro pulled Nami's face to him and kissed her gently. He fell back into her then, and groaned.

"Zoro! Don't die on me now!" she screamed.

"I think… my time…" he finished in a voice so soft she could hardly hear him. "I think… my time's up…"

Emichii: Ahhh… that was so dramatic! I'm so proud of myself! I'm so proud of my wonderful fighting drama! I'm finishing this second-last chapter listening to Pink's Who Knew song. And … wait… there's a clue for you… it's gonna be the songfic for one of my digimon Taioras that's coming up after Someone Just for Kari is done. And this is the second last chapter for this fanfic. Wasn't it just wonderful? Read and review!


	10. Chapter 10

Emichii: Yo peoples! Guess what? I'm writing this on the 3rd of July 2006 and I always update all three of my current fanfic on Saturday so that means that on the 8th of July, you'll all be reading this. So what? Well, one- 8th July is the day after the last day of term 2! So that means I have all the time in the world on the holidays to write! And 8th July is also my birthday! YAAYYY! And earlier, I told you I was 12… that means I'm gonna be 13! YAAYYY! Is that good? And plus- guess what other anime/manga character has the same birthday as me? I'll tell you later! And this is the last chapter of the wonderful Swords and Compasses! YAAYYY! And I am relatively excited so let me use this energy to create a magical ending! This is the last chapter of…. SWORDS AND COMPASSES!

**Chapter Ten- The battle is over! But we still can't get along like civilised people!**

"Zoro… don't die now!" Nami clenched her fists and watched Zoro.

Luffy had carried Zoro back to the ship where the lifeless swordsman lay on his bed. Chopper went around nervously, carrying medication and bandages and syringes and IV stuff and stitches and everything.

"Is he gonna survive?" Nami whispered.

Sanji said, "Oh yeah, 'course he will. Zoro's tough."

"Yeah," added Luffy. "Zoro can do it! He can pull through,"

The Straw Hat crew sat around waiting for Zoro to wake up.

Chopper said worriedly, "I'm sorry, Nami but… please don't get your hopes too high up. That was deadly poison and he got in quite a hard fight."

Nami was holding Zoro's hand. She whispered again, "Please Zoro, don't die, don't die, don't die…"

Chopper placed his hoof onto Zoro's wrist and tried to find his pulse.

"How is he?" asked Ussop.

Chopper shook his head. "Not good. I can't find his pulse." He pulled out his stethoscope and tried again.

Nami squeezed her eyes shut. _Please don't let it be true. _She didn't want to hear. _Zoro, don't die. _

She could imagine it all now… Chopper shaking his head and telling her he was dead.

_Zoro… _She thought of him now. He was teasing her, laughing, dragging her around.

Suddenly she had hope again, _please Zoro-don't die!_

When she opened her eyes again, she saw Luffy and the others. Luffy was staring at his bruised hands, eyes lowered, hair falling over his eyes.

Sanji was looking away in the other direction, thinking.

Ussop had buried his head in his hands.

Chopper was looking at Zoro.

_He is dead._

The idea of the whole thing struck her dumb. Everywhere she looked, Zoro's death seemed to scream at her from everywhere.

Now she said to the others, hoarsely and her throat dry: "Please, can I have some time alone with him?"

When they had left her alone, she sat next to Zoro and said, "Zoro, why did you have to die?" Over and over she repeated it, and grew angry. Tears fell from her eyes and she cried louder, "Zoro, you dummy- why did you have to die? Why did you have to leave me?"

She watched his still face again and the tears from her dripping onto his face.

Nami buried her head into his chest and cried.

Sanji watched from the doorway and sniffed. Nami clutched the folds of Zoro's clothes and cried angrily, "Why did you have to die?"

In anger, desperation and sadness, she reached feebly over to his face and slapped him.

Hahahahahahaha! Many thanx to my bro.

"Ow! That really hurt!"

Nami stared at Zoro, tears still running from her eyes.

Sanji jerked to attention.

"Zoro…?" she asked timidly.

"Yo!" he said cheerfully.

Nami threw herself at Zoro, crying. "You big idiot! How could you just die and make me suffer and then come back and just say 'yo'? I was really scared that you died! I was! I thought you had gone and just left me here! WWAAAAAAAAHHH!"

"Eh?"

Sanji was standing in the doorway, mouth wide open, and chin just about touching the ground.

Seconds later, Luffy was at the doorway, gaping. "Hey Ussop! Chopper, Zoro's alive!"

Everybody was so happy that Zoro was alive that in good spirits, Sanji said, "Let's celebrate!"

Chopper went off to get the beer while Nami wouldn't let go of Zoro even though Zoro was practically choking.

"Um, Nami," Luffy said, "maybe you should let go of Zoro now- before he dies again."

Zoro and Nami's faces blushed and Nami let go of Zoro.

When Chopper came back with the beer, Ussop cheered, "Everybody, eat, drink and be merry!"

"YAAAYYY!" they cheered.

Then Sanji said, glaring dangerously at Zoro, "By the way, Zoro… Is anything up with you and Nami? It's really suspicious the way you two were acting."

"What?" Zoro sputtered. "There is absolutely nothing-NOTHING going on!"

Sanji and Zoro started arguing.

Nami giggled good-naturedly and Luffy sighed. "Why can't we just get along?"

**THE END!**

Emichii: YAAAYYYYYY! That was the last chapter of Swords and Compasses! And a good one too! My apologies though, if you check every other one of my fanfic- the last chapters are always so short-hahaha! Anyway, did you know that my birthday is the same day as Haru from Rave Master's? It's true! Go read Rave Master vol.1, the manga and see the profile! Anyways, sadly… that's the end of another of my wonderful fanfic! Did you like it? Read and review!

By the way, sadly, this will be the last One Piece fanfic for a while because I'm out of ideas for One Piece… and since I always write 3 fanfic at a time- the cycle goes around again! The new fanfic is a .Hack/Legend of the Twilight fanfic. It's gonna be called Rare Hunter/ Mireille.

Why's it about Mireille? Because she's absolutely adorable! I love her! She's so cool! Here's the description. Balmung has a very very special event for rare hunters and Mireille has accepted the challenge. She has to retrieve the Walking Stone and bring it back to Balmung. Balmung in return, will give her something extraordinarily rare. But there is only one Walking Stone in _the world _and all the other rare hunters aren't gonna give up trying to complete this challenge. And there's more to the storyline. Mireille has been quiet lately, instead of laughing and talking all the time and Rena thinks that it is because of Shugo…

Rare Hunter/ Mireille is gonna be out next week! YAAYYY! Hope you all read it! Until then- Emichii!


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